CO-WINNER

Midnight Golf tracks data to help more students get into, complete college

System also increases its capacity to raise more money, help more kids

Also watching donors’ interests, internship opportunities

During its early years, the Midnight Golf Program was able to track the Detroit high school seniors in its program and those who went on to college informally through its small staff and volunteer mentors.

But when the number of students coming into the program annually doubled to 250 three years ago with a grant from the Jamie and Denise Jacob Family Foundation, “we knew we had to do something different,” Founder and President Renee Fluker said.

“There’s no way you can keep up with 250 kids by paper.”

Working with a budget of about $1.6 million, the nonprofit’s board and leadership decided to invest in Trax Solutions, giving staff the ability to track high school seniors in the 30-week golf and life skills program, as well as those who went on to college. This lets staff watch for key indicators that might prevent students from completing college. The system enabled Midnight Golf to put a new intentionality behind its support for program alumni who have gone on to college.

“We needed real information,” Fluker said. “If a board member is asking, ‘Why didn’t Jeff graduate?’ I need to be able to tell them. And then when you find out ... you can prevent it.”

It’s been a year and a half since Midnight Golf adopted the new system, but already it’s seeing results.

With more efficient tracking and the ability to collect information on more factors that impact students’ likelihood of finishing college, Midnight Golf was able to address academic and financial issues for 20 students who might otherwise have dropped out last year.

That’s increased the college persistence rate — the number of students from the 2016 and 2017 graduating classes who’ve stayed in college — by 5 percent, bringing it to 80 percent, said Vice President David Gamlin.

The small Bingham Farms-based nonprofit also began using another software program, Gift Works, around the same time to better track its donors and their interests and to provide a source of internship possibilities for the program’s students. Its total investment in the two programs and training was $20,000.

It raised an additional $400,000 during fiscal 2018, which ended Aug. 30, with the new system and is now operating on a $2.3 million budget.

The money raised enabled it to create three new full-time coach positions to work with college students, a grant writer and a fund director.

Midnight Golf’s use of data is not only helping more students complete college but also increasing its capacity to do so.

“There’s a lot of nice stories you can tell people about what you’re doing, but when you have facts, it changes the entire perspective,” Gamlin said.

Early intervention

Midnight Golf’s leadership discovered Trax Solutions, a software-based system that’s used by school systems and youth groups all over the country, during a trip to California to evaluate the TGR Foundation at the Tiger Woods Learning Center in Irvine, Calif.

With grant funding from one of the Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation funds established at the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan, the nonprofit adopted Trax in the summer of 2017. It now tracks attendance of the 255 current high school seniors in its program and 1,500 additional students who have gone on to college. In all, 99 percent of high school seniors coming into the program each year go on to college, Gamlin said.

With Trax, Midnight Golf can follow the attendance of high school seniors in various parts of the program, from life skills classes in things like financial management, resume writing, negotiating, dressing for success and public speaking, to golf lessons and mentoring sessions. It’s also able to direct students to colleges that are the best fit, based on factors such as their grade-point average, Gamlin said.

For the college students in its program, it’s now tracking enrollment status, financial statements, transcripts, family configuration, learning challenges, first-generation college status and need for learning challenges services, among other things. The goal is to identify issues early that might keep them from completing college so they can be addressed.

“That was part of the motivation for helping us to put these tools in place, so we can be more proactive and not reactive,” Gamlin said.

“We needed answers for those (who were) slipping through the cracks ... we knew better data tools would help us find answers.”

Beyond helping identify issues early on, the new student-tracking system has also decreased the amount of time it takes to connect with Midnight Golf’s alumni in college from more than five months to two months, Gamlin said.

Keeping track of donors

The small nonprofit also invested in Gift Works software to better track its donors and their interests and potential internship possibilities.

The easiest money to secure is repeat donations from people who have already given to you, Gamlin said. With Gift Works, Midnight Golf is less likely to lose touch with donors, as it has done in the past.

It’s also able to track donors’ unique interests, whether that’s college success, youth development or golf, he said. It can communicate fine details for donors who are interested in them by pulling information from Trax.

Tracking donors’ employment information is also helpful in matching students in Midnight Golf programs with supporters working in their areas of interest, such as engineering, Fluker said.

With Gift Works enabling tracking and spurring follow-up, “our gifts have been much more significant and consistent,” Gamlin said.

The new donor management system has enabled it to be much more professional and to provide donors with regular updates.

“When we started doing that, people started responding very positively to that,” he said. “Our donors know we care about what they care about.”

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